Awake and sober

It's been a while since I haven't posted a general post just to say hi to you guys.
Just to keep you posted.

Nothing much happens to me these days, except my friends and I went out for barbecue on the weekend. But then I have to welcome the first busy week of the whole quarter which is exactly this week. The truth is, I've got three exams this week. One of them is a quiz to be exact, which required skills to memorize 1223467234 terms. Well, not that much of course, but you get the idea.

I kind of hate my English skills are heading to these days, I mean orally. Cos all of a sudden, my natural accent went 'poof'. Even it reached the point where I heard myself speaking in Singaporean/Indonesian/Javanese accent all of a sudden during Web Design spontaneous presentation. A lot of 'uhms' and 'errs' might be excused, accents? That's another story.

Not that I feel embarrassed, but I guess at least now I know how I talk naturally when I'm lazy enough to use my natural accent. But really, I'm not faking my American accent. I grew up watching tons of American movies and instinctively picked up the way Americans speak. It sort of stuck in me.

Anyway...
Another factor might be laziness. Speaking of laziness, Bruno Mars just released a song that pretty much depicts most of people's life when they are in lazy mode. The lyrics exactly match why lazy habit, so yeah, I guess you can relate it to yours too.

I've been wondering why most of my friends are into Tetris these days. I mean, it's a classical game and not my favorite one either. So I decided to give it a try one day and guess what, I got super addicted to the game!!! Well, not that addicted, but for a non-gamer like me, playing 6 rounds non stop is considered an addiction.

Currently, I'm on Level 12. My friends' levels are waaaaaayyy higher than mine that I feel a little intimidated. Often do I get annoyed with this game cos everytime you lose, you'll lose a point and if you keep on losing, your level will downgrade to the level below your current level. Also, everytime your opponent gets matching pieces that they need, I always get the opposite, which often leads me to being KOed. Sounds like the game is biased enough, eh? So, due to that game system, I always win but then I lose, I win, I lose, I win, I lose.

I assume the game must have something to do with conspiracy.

Here's something else I want to share with you guys too. But don't laugh at it okay?

I'm telling you: I'm a terrible cook. My "piece of art" may be exquisite-looking - a little too crowded for sure - to you but if you take a closer look, it consists of nothing but bunch of unrelated dishes, ranging from fish balls, fish cakes, crab sticks, mushrooms, carrots, spinach, potato, and a whole lot more. I'm a soup person. I always cook soup and suck at cook something else (I can, but it won't taste as good as my soup).
Even after I saw the picture I just took, I was like "F*ck, what the hell is this???"

If you ask what kind of food that is above you, I wouldn't give you the exact answer cos even I don't know what exactly that I cooked!

I guess it's safe to say that it's a combination of miso soup, fish ball soup, and vegetable soup. Well, I don't have the proper name for that but I'll let you define it by yourself.

My roommate Elda is way better in cooking. Go check her blog and I'll let you drool over her cooking.

One more thing before I'm signing off, since my history notes have been calling out for me:

I'M GOING BACK TO INDONESIA ON AUGUST!!!

Phiew...well, the homecoming story isn't even finished and I'm going back again? Time flies so fast, huh. It feels as if I just got back to Indonesia yesterday. It's pretty contradictory for some people I guess. Not that I don't miss my home country. In fact, I really do miss a lot of things that I still can't find here. The list is gonna be very long, you wouldn't want to read it now in this post.

Night/Morning/Evening/Afternoon peeps!

Homecoming pt 4

h o m e c o m i n g

part 4
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ATTENTION!
Again, just to let you guys know that this post is slightly different from any other posts you'll find in this blog. It's rather writings-heavy. So if you're not really into long texts or can't stand of reading a great deal of writings, simply skip it and wait till I finish all the parts. But for those who are curious enough and will to read it, you are more than welcome to do so. Enjoy!

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When I got into the airplane, I plopped down to my seat. Much to my disappointment though, I forgot to request the window's seat. Instead, I was placed in the middle, between an Asian girl and a scrawny tall man with long blonde hair and fierce Harley-Davidson-rider-ish look. Also, although it was not a surprise anymore, the airplane provided no personal entertainment equipment usually installed in each seats. So I began to think what I was going to do for the next fourteen hours ahead. Well, reading a book and sleeping might be the best solution.

So there I was, sitting in my seat for as long as I could remember. I tried to make short conversation with especially the girl that sat next to me by the window. But it was very short because I believe she was also tired, and so was I. Sometimes I woke up a little bit just to watch what movie was played on the huge screen in front of the cabin section. I vividly remembered that they played Charlie St Cloud over and over again.

Since there was nothing much to do on the plane, I decided to spend the rest of the flight sleeping and only to be woken up by a flight attendant that notified me it was already time to breakfast and dinner. Whether it was breakfast or dinner, I couldn't tell the difference, because everytime I opened the window lit to see if it was bright or not, it was always dark. So dawn or evening, I could care less. Something strange happened to me on the plane.

The first meal served was dinner and I was literally woken up by the nice flight attendant, who meaningfully stared at me and threw me a question in Mandarin. Since I heard her mentioning “fan”, which means “rice”. When the flight attendant stopped with an expecting smile, I told her “Fan”. Then after asking the Harley-Davidson guy and the girl next to me, she put a meal set on my table and moved on to another row. It was inevitable for me to accept the fact that I did look like a Chinese.

At that moment, I thanked my mom for gradually implanting me with basic Mandarin words. I never had a formal background when it comes to Mandarin. My mom – who is of a Chinese descendant – speaks really fluent Mandarin. Therefore I instinctively picked up the words my mom often says and tries to ask her for translation. “Fan” is one of the words that I picked up, and at the moment I succeeded to convey my Mandarin sayings to the flight attendant, it brought a particular satisfaction to me.

Even though some people often said that airplane food was plain and tasteless, I found it quite delicious in some ways, maybe because of the humidity on the air. The humidity drew thirst and hunger to me, that's why when I was exposed to any kind of food onboard, I would be more than glad to receive it. No matter it was my favorite or not. Although the breakfast food was a bit weird. Not the food entirely, but the omelet in specific. I simply tasted nothing but a plain omelet before I decided to sprinkle loads of salt and pepper on it – something I rarely do.

t o b e c o n t i n u e d . . .

Some junks that might worth to see

It's been an exhausting day today. I don't know why. The thing is, I only had two classes. Yeah, two yet energy-spending ones. Web design class starts to get a little busy starting from today, with all the presentation and upcoming first project that will be given on Thursday. I also studied all night long yesterday for today's English quiz, only to find out that it was postponed.

So bed was all I needed today. I went home and literally slumped myself on the bed. I took a nap for two hours (that's even longer than my usual nap time length) and got a very weird dream, which I'm going to tell you about it whenever I feel like writing it.

Anyway, I won't write much today. Just want to keep you posted. It came to my mind that I haven't showed any of my artwork that I did last quarter in Beginning Drawing class. So here are what I basically created. They might not really spoil your sight and not as professional looking as you might have expected.
But hope they would at least worth to see.

Title: Bench
Drawn on: red carton
Materials: 2B pencil and white colored pencil
Note: Not finished yet but I love how it actually gives a slight sense of 3D. I don't know if you see that way.


Title: The Well-Respected Figure
Drawn on: brown carton
Materials: 2B pencil and white colored pencil
Note: I'm very suuuure that he was actually someone famous. Can't figure out who. Let me know if you find out!


Title: The Globe Showered in Light
Drawn on: white A2 paper
Materials: charcoal pencil
Note: I was about to submit this work as my final in-class project to be graded (cos most in-class projects are merely practice and ungraded), but it was ripped at the middle top. TT__TT


Title: A Chair's Silhouette
Drawn on: white A2 paper
Materials: charcoal pencil
Note: Another in-class project. Sorry, for the blurry picture. Can't seem to get it right.


Title: Self-portrait 1
Drawn on: white A2 paper
Materials: 2B pencil
Note: It's my very first take-home project, done at the beginning of the course. But I've managed to improve my self-portrait skills throughout the course. You'll see it right below.


Title: Self-portrait 2
Drawn on: white A2 paper
Materials: 2B pencil
Note: It was done for my final project. Look at the drastic transformation. It doesn't look THAT good, but still, I'm surprised to see how my drawing skills have fully increased throughout the quarter.


Title: Masked
Drawn on: white A2 paper, transparent paper
Materials: 2B pencil, permanent OHP pen, color pencil
Note: My final project. The mask features the theme of mardi gras. The unique looking items you see represent my interests and hobby. It was drawn on a transparent paper that was placed on top of the self-portrait 2.


Title: Frogs
Drawn on: Newsprint paper
Materials: 2B pencil
Note: Not good at drawing animals. Nuff said.


Title: Jar
Drawn on: Newsprint
Materials: charcoal pencil
Note: I practiced on making a shiny effect on this bronze jar.


Title: Portrait of a Friend
Drawn on: white A2 paper
Materials: 2B pencil
Note: Portrait of my friend Aymee. Hopefully it looks just like the real person.


Title: Kristin Chenoweth caricature
Drawn on: white A2 paper
Materials: 2B pencil
Note: One of my most favorite projects. Just can't believe that I can actually draw caricatures!


Title: Wooden, small-scaled home
Drawn on: white A2 paper
Materials: 2B pencil
Note: Nothing special about this, except the fact that I made this on the verge of sleeping in the class


Title: Twins!
Drawn on: black carton
Materials: white colored pencil
Note: The only project in the class that involves collage. Sprouse twins FTW!


Title: Studying
Drawn on: white A2 paper
Materials: Pen
Note: The project makes me practice my skills in drawing with continuous line.


Title: Anonymous
Drawn on: white A2 paper
Materials: 2B and 4B pencils
Note: I'm also pretty sure he's someone famous. The teacher mentioned about his name in the class but I forgot it!


Title: Bonsai
Drawn on: newsprint
Materials: charcoal pencil
Note: My first negative space/silhouette project.


Title: Face proportion
Drawn on: white A2 paper
Materials: 2B pencil
Note: She looks like EMMA ROBERTS! How scary is that?


Title: Life Drawing
Drawn on: white A2 paper
Materials: 2B pencil
Note: My last in-class project. Basically each student was to strike a pose in front of the class, and we all have to draw his/her pose in approx. 30 seconds. Excuse the clutters.


Title: Backyard
Drawn on: white A2 paper
Materials: ink pen (or G-pen) and permanent OHP pen
Note: My least favorite project which uses Van Gogh sketchy drawing style. I could've made better than this.


Title: Frowning
Drawn on: white A2 paper
Materials: 2B pencil
Note: I used several shading styles. I kinda hate the way I drew the eyebrows. She looks fierce instead of...frowning


Title: Going to Balloon Exhibition
Drawn on: white A2 paper
Materials: Marker, mechanical pencil, O.H.P marker, color pencil
Note: My best and most favorite project!!! It's actually midterm project though. The pictures at the first and the last storyboard are cut right from a magazine. I was to make the connection between those two pictures, which ends up as a movie storyboard.


Title: King Kong
Drawn on: newsprint
Materials: Charcoal
Note: Naomi Watt's expression = FAIL T_T

Well, I guess that's it. I gotta either study now or revise my essay. Tomorrow's gonna be a busy day. Not so much to do for tomorrow though, but tomorrow's classes will be mostly lectures.

From L A with ♥ pt. 7: Cross Culture

Unlike the previous titles, I kind of like how I entitle this post. Cross Culture refers to three different places that have three different yet strong vibes: Indonesian, Hollywood, and Korean.

This post is image heavy. Just want to let you know.

Previously: To go there, we didn't have to take the bus in Wilshire Boulevard when we first got off. Apparently there was a bus stop that would lead us to Simpang Asia. What the heck, the post's getting longer! It was still a long day, but I'll cut off here so you won't hurt your eyes reading such a loooong text.

Still on the same day, as you may tell.

From Westwood Boulevard just slightly several feet from UCLA entrance, we waited for bus #12 that would take us all the way to National Boulevard, where Simpang Asia was. Apparently, bus #12 happened to be the rarest bus to ever stop at the bus stop. So our patience was really tested, especially we were so damn hungry at that time. I kept motivating myself by thinking of Cah Kangkung, Nasi Campur, Lodeh, and all of my favorite Indonesian food that I love and I hope would be available in the restaurant.

Finally, after ages of waiting, the bus that we'd been waiting for came. It took quite a while to go to Simpang Asia. I barely remembered whether we needed to switch a bus or not, but as far as I remember, it was only a one-bus ride. Good for us.

The restaurant turned out to be not really big as I thought it would be, but it has a nice family-friendly atmosphere that brought comfort to us. Even more surprising, the waiter and the waitress in duty turned out to be Indonesians! So yeah, the waiter brought us the menu and we spent like more than 30 minutes to decide which food to order. I'm sure he was already getting used to this sight – a group of Indonesian college students trying to make up their minds on what food to order.

No wonder, cos the restaurant was said to have the completest menu among all Indonesian restaurants in – probably – Calif, especially the fact is, we actually lived very far from this restaurant. So, once in a blue moon, no?

We finally made up my mind. Aymee came up with Nasi Uduk and Sayur Nangka, I came up with Nasi Warteg and Sayur Lodeh for breakfast, and Elda came up with Nasi Uduk with Sayur Kangkung, Tahu+Tempe, and siomay for breakfast too. I know, we sound like we've never eaten these stuff for ages, ay?

Tahu and Tempe (Fried tofu and fermented soybean cake)

Cah Kangkung (some sort of fried spinach with chili spicing)

Nasi Warteg
(mixed rice with chopped boiled egg, beef, pineapple dipped into coconut milk soup, cucumber, chicken, fried peanut - okay enough the writer's drooling)

After we finished our lunch, we paid and visited the grocery store which was located right next to the restaurant. Since the grocery store shared the same name with the restaurant, we were convinced that it would sell Indonesian groceries and products.
And here's where the euphoria began... (background music: Survival – Daylight OST to add more dramatization)

Aymee: “They have Taro!!!!” (Indonesian chips similar to Cheetos)

Elda: “Omygosh there's KOPIKO!!” (coffee candies)

Aymee: “Teh BOTOL!!!!” (a famed tea product in Indonesia)

Me: “Kacang Pilus Garudaaaaa!!!!” (Coated peanut balls)

Aymee: “Pop mie!!!” (cup noodles)

Elda: “Minyak kayu putiiihhh!!!!” (Cajuput oil)

Me: “Marie Regal Biscuit!!!” (milk biscuit)

Aymee: “Guys, I found something that's even much better....*drumroll* BENG BENG!!!” (crunchy caramel chocolate bar)

Yeah it was THIS hilarious. 98% of the whole products displayed in the store is Indonesian products, so you can imagine what it's like reconciling with the products we had longed to consume since our departure to the US.

The mentioned products above are all imported from Indonesia, and are impossible to find here. It's weird how back in Indonesia, I wasn't really a fan of any of the products mentioned above. But after not tasting it for more than half a year, I kind of missed consuming the products, which leads me - and not just me but also Elda and Aymee - to go ecstatic over the products we found.

That's why, back in Indonesia, there's this famous slogan of "Consume local products" yet Indonesian people simply just ignore those words and go on consuming imported ones. Here, Indonesian people feel everything in reverse. We long for Indonesian products, no matter how we hardly consumed it back in Indonesia.

Elda and Aymee even bought each box of Beng beng. One box could even contain up to twenty Beng beng. I don't understand why Beng Beng is actually THAT famous. Everyone likes it for sure, and even I like it, even better, it's actually addictive. So if you spot an Indonesian and you expose him with a package of Beng Beng, he won't hesitate to devour it.

We spazzed over these Indonesian products like they were some hot boys. But after exploring the store aisles through aisles, we ended up carrying these products we really wanted to buy. Oh by the way, even the store's employees are Indonesians! Wow, I started to doubt whether the bus was taking us straight to Jakarta or another corner of LA.

I didn't buy much stuff, considering how small my suitcase is. Too bad. Elda and Aymee really got a lot of stuff and it was good for them. I'm really sure they had plenty of space to place their items.

The items I finally ended up buying
(Coated peanut, cup noodle, tea box, a box of black tea sachets - ALL ARE INDONESIAN PRODUCTS)

Elda and Aymee, especially, had to sort their items which to buy and which not. After a while, they finally made up their mind and went to the cashier counter to pay.

Aymee still deciding on what to buy

Finally, with our shopping bags on both of our hands, we were ready for the next and third destination. Actually the destination itself was quite unplanned. It was already 4 pm when we left Simpang Asia and headed towards the next destination, which was...no other than...Hollywood Boulevard! At first, I had a feeling that we couldn't make it to Hollywood on time, because we would be having dinner in Koreatown.

But it was just 4 pm and the sun was still high up. I was worried if we went to Koreatown that early, we would spend hours till dinner time wandering around. Cos I was convinced that Koreatown didn't have much shopping places to explore, despite the fact that everything there was all Korean.

I felt confident about going to Hollywood Boulevard. Besides, we weren't going to spend much time there. All we did was just strolling around and taking pictures, maybe followed with a bit of shopping. Though the distance from Simpang Asia was relatively short, we needed to switch buses midway.

I decided to lead the way, despite my poor ability in navigation. Aymee, Elda, and I just relied ourselves on my Google map, cos Elda's wasn't working.

There was a funny event along the way. When I was busy trying to locate the bus stop and talking to both Elda and Aymee, Elda suddenly went “Structural and Civil Engineering!!!!!” using the tone of someone shouting “Look out there's a snake!!!”
I instinctively jumped in panic. I believe Aymee also did the same. In a second, I thought there was something really shocking, but in the end Elda was just pointing at a small board with 'Structural and Civil Engineering' text on it. Oh I get it Elda. I know you want to be an engineer that bad, but as a result my heartbeat stopped for several split milliseconds. lol :)

After two bus rides, we made it to Hollywood Boulevard. It was packed with people, although we realized it wasn't high season, unless for some people who were having spring break just like us.

Unfortunately my camera's battery drained once we got there, so Elda's camera took place.

Apparently the day before our visit, English actress Helen Mirren came to Grauman's Chinese Theatre to immortalize her footprint, handprint, and handwriting of her name on the block of cement.

Helen Mirren's footprint and handprint are still wet that they still need to be fenced.

At first Aymee was like “Why do we go this place anyway?” cos I pretty much believe that she's not an avid fan of movies. But her mode suddenly changed drastically as she spotted Arnold Schwarzenegger's handprint in Grauman's Chinese Theatre.

Here are some more pictures taken in Grauman's Chinese Theatre.

It was actually the second time for me to visit Hollywood Boulevard after the previous visit which was on February 2009 with my family. At that time, Kodak Theatre was fully concealed due to the upcoming Academy Award the next day. I couldn't catch the full glimpse of the theatre, but at that moment, I was lucky enough to spot the famous giant Oscar statue in the red carpet.

But now, the Oscar's season has passed and I got to catch the full glimpse of Kodak Theatre building!!!!

During the Oscar, this entrance will be draped in red carpet and at the corner will stood a giant Oscar statue

We even took some pictures with two cosplayers posing as Zorros.

Last but not least, the other major attraction of this area is not other than the walk of fame itself. We walked along the sidewalk of Hollywood Boulevard only to take pictures with our favorite actors, musicians, singers, and directors. There are actually lots of picture we take here from Elda's camera, but of course I wouldn't upload all of them here.

After all this time, I always thought Madame Tussauds wax museum is only one, and that's in New York City. But I came to realize that there are actually several of them spread around the world. Hollywood included of course, since it's the capital of film industry and entertainment. Too bad we weren't able to get in due to limited time and high admission fee.

She looks very real!!

I wonder if the real Nicolas Cage is THIS tall.

I also bought myself a white tank top with famous I ♥ LA on it. The price is quite reasonable so I'm satisfied. Sorry, no picture. Too lazy to take a picture and upload it to the computer :p

Here are some more views from the famed Hollywood boulevard

In front of the Hollywood/Highland station

Hollywood Boulevard before we left for Koreatown

A rare sighting of a fancy white limo!

After spending approximately an hour in Hollywood Boulevard, we took off to the last destination: Koreatown!!!! Good thing it wouldn't take us while to go to Koreatown from where we were at that moment. Hollywood Highland Metro station was located a few feet from Kodak Theatre!

Once we got there, the sun already set, and all that we needed to do was just looking for a Korean Barbecue house for dinner. There were actually a lot of them, like spread all over the place. But we wanted to find a decent one. Too bad, the format of Koreatown wasn't like Little Tokyo. The place was merely a normal neighborhood with only everything was in Hangeul. I wish there was a good place to shop for Korean stuff, but apparently, I found none.

I tried to use my limited ability in reading Hangeul, to make sure which is a barbecue house and which is not. We almost entered a place we believed was a restaurant but apparently it was a karaoke place. The sky was getting darker so we decided to just enter the first restaurant we spotted. Finally, we found a decent Korean barbecue house: Chil Bo Myun Ok.

We were very surprised to see that it was actually a fancy restaurant! At least the price is still reasonable, according to Yelp. In fact, I felt like the three of us were the only non-Koreans and the youngest people to have dining there. The others were of course, Koreans or at least Korean speaking people, and mostly are adults who were having dinner with their colleagues.

Since it was our last night in LA, we decided to eat something really special. Honestly, the three of us were a bit clueless when it comes to Korean cuisine. No matter how often I watch Korean reality shows and dramas, still they didn't really help.

We finally asked a waitress – an ahjumma – to recommend us what course we should order. She pointed out the restaurant's bulgogi specialty and we decided to go with that.

The ahjumma even served us with free Korean egg soup or Gyeran-tang (계란탕) and dolsot bibimbap (돌솥 비빔밥). She also divided the huge portion of Bibimbap to three of us. She's really nice!!! I really wanted to say something in Korean, but the only thing I could say is just “Dolsot.” which literally means “stone pot”.

The bulgogi was absolutely goooooodddd!!!!

It was already late and it was time for us to go home. We were a bit confused to locate the nearest Metro station. When we were lost in an intersection, we bumped into a stranger. Elda collected her guts to ask the stranger where the station is, to which the stranger replied. “It's right across the intersection behind you.” (yup, our backs were facing the intersection so we didn't really pay attention what across the intersection was). It was a bit silly I know ^^".

The train that was about to take off once we got to the station was apparently the last train. Good thing we caught it on time, otherwise we needed to wait for...I don't know, tomorrow morning? I guess?

Eventually, we spent the rest of the night packing and tried to reassembled all the items we bought in LA and the clothes as well. Phiew, what a night.

<< Part 6 • • Part 8 >>

I wanna be a conglomerate (so freakin' bad)

You may not find anything funny from this dialogue, but it just sounds very unique.
Just last night, my mom messaged me through BBM, asking me how I've been doing. All of a sudden, we came across this unexpected topic. Well, basically the entire conversation is about a friend of mine, let's just call him "Kimchi" (especially since he likes to grin a lot, and that grin is like saying "Kimchi...Kimchi...") who's currently studying abroad as well.

Mom: "Your friend - Kimchi - is now working at a department store, you know."

Me: "Good for him then." (cos last time, I heard of him working as a kitchen dishwasher. So I hoped to hear he moved to a better workplace).

Mom: "Yup, his mom said that Kimchi was a smart speaker now. He could handle job interviews really well. Through his mom, he also said that he wanted to upgrade his job from being a dishwasher, to being an employee in that department store. So that he can make his dreams come true." (What a word: Dreams come true, pretty much like Disney's slogan)

Me: "Dreams come true? What are his dreams?"

Mom: "He wants to be a conglomerate."

Me: "A future conglomerate working at a department store?"

Mom: "He may now start barely as an employee, pushing carts back to shelves, but well, you never know what's going to happen in the future. Besides, that kid's quite ambitious, you know."

Oh wow, hearing about Kimchi's big dream, I become strongly motivated on my goals now. Why only this particular friend of mine that can motivate me? Cos he's my childhood friend and so far I've felt like I've underestimated him a lot throughout the days.

So hearing about him getting all the jobs and such, now I've felt the world's running in reverse. I haven't done anything much these days. The most productive things I've ever done are probably doing job applications and attending club meetings.

Last quarter, I ridiculously turned down an off-campus art teacher's assistant job just because I didn't feel very confident due to my limited drawing skills. Then now I'm aiming to work at the library or bookstore. Maybe I'm going to apply as a Math tutor, which I'm going to show you the details now through the dialogue below (continued from the dialogue above).

Mom: "What about you then? You've got a job yet?"

Me: "Not yet. I just applied for a library's position, and lately my friend recommended me a job at the tutoring center. I might apply as a Math tutor. The demand and requirement are pretty easy anyway."

Mom: "Huh? Math tutor?" (possibly, my mom was like "WTF, my kid, who barely ever scored past 70 in Math back in high school, now wanted to be a math tutor? *uncontrolled laughter* she must be joking").

Me: "Yeah, don't underestimate me. I'm not going to teach difficult stuff. I'm aiming to be an algebra tutor." (Algebra's probably the easiest among all Math levels. I don't even know/care if my mom knows about that)

Mom: "I have a feeling you should apply for an art assistant job or English tutor instead." (maybe her words are synonymous to: "Are you gonna kill yourself? I mean, teaching math? Go find a more suitable job for you.")

Me: "I'm not good in correcting essays nor displaying my artwork as good examples in art classes."

Mom: "How are you going to apply as a math teacher?"

Me: "I'll ask my past Algebra professor to recommend me."

Mom: "Whatever. It's up to you."

Anyway, it's just that I've never chatted with my mom this long (the actual conversation is even longer. I just cut off some parts here so you won't read all the unnecessary blabbers). We chat once in a blue moon, and I never find chatting with my mom THAT enjoyable compared to chatting with my lively dad.
But it's just...wow....my mom's really good at this kind of topic.

I'm running out of the track here. Well, the point that I'm about the emphasize is actually Kimchi's point where he aimed to make his dreams come true. I still don't get exactly what he means with his dreams since his definition of dream is rather abstract, but I guess that's kind of motivating, not just to me but to all of us.

We can dream big and it always starts from the bottom in order to reach something at the top.

From L A with ♥ pt. 6: U C Lots of Attraction

Title = FAIL XD

Previously: That's not the end of the story. Elda and I woke Aymee up when the clock struck 12. Yep, it's Aymee's Birthday!!!!! Aymee was already asleep but Elda and I managed to be awake, and when it was time, we surrounded Aymee and sang Happy Birthday! XD
It's gonna be a looooong day tomorrow!!!!

DAY 4: MARCH 29, 2011 (Aymee's Birthday!)

Sorry took me forever to finally make another post.
Well, I shouldn't have excused myself cos reality's taking over me these days. School hasn't been so busy yet, but I mean, it's just the second week, so I don't know what's going to come up next.

Anyway, let's move onto the next topic before these memories of my spring break in LA fades away. Getting on the third fourth day, which was the second last day before our departure back to Cupertino, we had a lot of plans and places to go to. Again, we got up really early that day and took off to Little Tokyo metro station.

Before going straight to the station, we dropped by at a bakery in Japanese Village plaza. Since it was very early in the morning, most of the shops were still closed, with only a few were opened. I bought myself a curry pan (=bread) for breakfast, which was recommended by the lady behind the counter. Aymee also got herself the same thing.

Nom nom!
Must try for curry fans :p

Since such a bread with that flavor was brand new to my tongue, I kind of doubted how it would taste like. Aymee was getting used to tasting new stuff so I'm pretty sure she wouldn't have much doubt, but as for my case, it was different.

So anyway, we munched on our curry pans (I forgot what Elda got) and took off straight to the Little Tokyo Metro station. In case you don't know where exactly we were going, our first destination would be the highly-acknowledged university in LA aka University of California, Los Angeles (read=UCLA). Turns out the curry pan was so damn good! Due to my extreme hunger that morning, I quickly devoured that pan in less than a minute, while walking to the station.

This time, we were to take the Metro rail to Union Station and switch it to the purple line rail, with Wilshire/Western (Koreatown) as its final stop. Speaking of Koreatown, that was one of the destinations we aimed to go, but I'm going to talk about that later.

Once we got off in Wilshire/Western, I caught a glimpse of Koreatown intersection. Seriously, everything there was all in Korean characters! I felt like the train was taking me straight to Seoul instead to another corner of LA. Oh, mind my blabbering. We were to take a bus that took us down the Wilshire Boulevard all the way to Westwood.

It was a loooooong bus ride. Good thing we didn't have to switch buses cos it would take us longer to get to UCLA. But it was such a pain in the butt since the bus was packed with people so Aymee, Elda, and I had to stand throughout the ride. Anyway, we passed some LA famous sites such as Beverly Hills, La Brea Tar Pits, and the filming location of No Strings Attached.

Despite the long ride (as we saw on our Google map apps), it didn't feel like ages. Soon we arrived at Westwood and got off at an intersection. One of the roads in the intersection led all the way to UCLA. So we only needed to follow the path down the road (Westwood Boulevard) all the way to the campus grounds.

I liked how the campus was situated. For someone who enjoyed living in the crowd, I definitely admired UCLA's surroundings. Down the path that led to the main campus area, stood lines of shops, restaurants, and even malls (Westwood Plaza). I became even more ecstatic to transfer to this UC, even though the chances might be a bit futile.

UCLA was located right at the end of the road. The first thing we were about to find is, again, the admission office, cos basically that's where it all starts: registration, new student information, and even the tour we planned to join as well.

The main campus ground was packed of people, which reminds me pretty much of my own college campus in its weekdays. I wonder why people weren't having spring break just like us, most likely because their academic system was slightly different than ours. Unfortunately, the tour had taken off. We knew we were late, so we took our own moment to explore the campus even deeper.

Three of us stumbled upon a library building. We were quite convinced it was the library where the famed yet controversial Alexandra Wallace complained upon the noisy Asian students talking on their phones. The issue was still recent. If you don't know the case, basically, there's this UCLA girl who posted a video on Youtube. She blabbered that she was annoyed for hearing Asian students talking on their phones in the library, while she was having an epiphany in the middle of studying Political Science for final exam.

The building where it happened aka the Crime Scene

Thus, Aymee hilariously called this library as “the crime scene”.

The next destination within the campus is, Art Department building. On our way, we stumbled upon several groups of campus tour. At first, we were considering to join, but in the end, for some reason (maybe because it would take up more than two hours, considering how enormous the campus complex is), we decided to just walk on our own.

Nothing much found in Art Department building, cos it turns out to be a building full of classes and some sculptures that I forgot to take pictures. Lame. There was no place even to ask for information. So we decided to take some more pictures.

The clock struck 12, and we realized there was still plenty of place to go to. So we decided to go back all the way to the main entrance of UCLA campus. Apparently the UCLA main entrance was waaaay faaaarr from where we were at that moment (Art Department Building). The building itself was located close to the back entrance which was Sunset Boulevard.

Actually there were lots of interesting object for photography around UCLA grounds, but please excuse my low camera battery (damn, I forgot to charge it the day before. I had no idea we would go to so many places that day), I decided to save it for later.

We walked our way back to the main entrance, but before that, the three of us spent some quality time in the UCLA shop. I got myself a blue UCLA shirt.

And Elda bought a book that's strongly related to her major, which is “Super Structure”. Wow, way to go. XD

Later on, we walked down Westwood Boulevard out of the campus area. Next up, we were going to have lunch in Simpang Asia. In case you don't know what it is, it's an Indonesian restaurant located somewhere between UCLA and Koreatown. It was said to have a huge variety of Indonesian food. Not being biased but it's pretty famous especially for Indonesian community not just in Los Angeles, but in California (hey, we're from SF Bay Area).

To go there, we didn't have to take the bus in Wilshire Boulevard when we first got off. Apparently there was a bus stop that would lead us to Simpang Asia.

What the heck, the post's getting longer! It was still a long day, but I'll cut off here so you won't hurt your eyes reading such a loooong text.

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